On the structure and inertia of prices

The wide speculative movements of the great basic commodities have given rise to prevalent Imp eosts of production." losing variations in supply and demand, and likewise in extraordi lar consistency or inertia of price movements when lem nary secula e conclusion drawn from this investigation is that the benefits of techn perspec al imnrovement have spread rather evenly over most forms of production, and that in general prices tend to swing together in a remarkable degree. Therefore, that the main, long-term movements in the prices of most great basic commodities, or in commodity price indexes, have little or no discoverable consistent relation with the commodities themselves.